A Massive Hedge Fund Gradually Shifts Its Largest Bet

Motley Fool – Bridgewater Associates, the hedge fund founded by Ray Dalio, has a fascinating composition. It mixes concentrated investments in macroeconomic categories (usually through large, liquid ETFs) with a plethora of smaller positions. The fund’s equity holdings disclosed on Sept. 30, 2013, stood at $11.8 billion. Three holdings made up 89% of the fund: the SPDR S&P 500 ETF , the Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF, and the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF.

The last 11%, or $1.3 billion of holdings, was split among no fewer than 308 positions. Out of these positions, 241 represented less than 0.1% each of the total. The smallest position was a $95,000 stake in Huntington Bancshares. Now, to you and me, $95,000 may seem like a decent bit of coin. But in relation to $11.8 billion, it’s infinitesimally small — expressed as a percentage, it’s 0.0008% of the total. To put this in perspective, picture a boulder that weighs one ton — 2,000 pounds.